Atheist Bands: Quiet Company

While I’m on this little journey through atheism and music, I thought it would be good to highlight some of the genuinely awesome atheist bands out there.

One of my all-time favourites is Quiet Company, partly because their journey is so compelling.

The Comfort of Four-Part Harmonies: Secular Hymns

Growing up, I went to a church that was fairly conservative (musically speaking). There was an organist or a pianist, and the whole congregation sang four-part hymns out of hymnals. This is one of my earliest memories of reading. Though my parents never professed to be musically gifted, my sister and I were encouraged from an early age with lessons on various instruments and myriad performing opportunities. Music was an integral part of my childhood, and thus the songs I was exposed to every Sunday shaped me.

As I grew older and studied music theory, I was educated in the structure of hymns like How Great Thou Art, Crown Him With Many Crowns, and It Is Well with My Soul. Perfect authentic, deceptive, and plagal cadences were the building-blocks of these songs that gave me so much comfort and I learned to read their code. Though I soon moved on in my studies to advanced concepts of atonality and arguing the existence of the harmonic minor, I always felt myself drawn to these lush harmonies.

They were, and are, a part of me. I instinctively feel the lead of the the notes and know where they will go, even separate from the mechanical knowledge I have. I love them, and I’ll still sing them occasionally when I’m alone in my car.

This presents an interesting dilemma as an atheist.